Are there any Psychology jobs???

louise1021

My boyfriend recently finished up his B.A in Psychology in U.C.D, and the graduation ceremony will be in December. The problem is he can't seem to get a job anywhere because nowadays most places are looking for 4+ years experience in a certain field. I can understand that a certain level of experience is needed for the more sensitive or difficult aspects of the job, but I can't understand how he is ever going to be able to get experience as a psychologist if he needs experience to get the job in the first place! Does anyone know of any places at the minute who are prepared to hire graduates with little or no experience? My boyfriend says that maybe he will try to do some volunteer work as a way to get some experience which is a really good idea, but in reality he can't really work for free for 4+ years especially in the current climate.....

hotspur

Your boyfriend isn't considered a psychologist yet, he isn't qualified to do anything at all with only an undergraduate degree. It's not a question of getting years of experience, it's a question of getting qualified to do a job. He needs to do postgraduate study if he wishes to become a psychologist.

What does he actually want do? Even if he sets his heart on becoming, say, a clinical psychologist he has pretty much no chance of getting onto such a programme straight out of college as an undergraduate. It's harsh but that's the reality. The truth is his degree as it stands qualifies to do about as much as an English or history degree would. He needs to do postgraduate training in a particular field.

sambuka41

Your boyfriend isnt a psychologist but he can get work in social care. There is loads of jobs that he can apply for, work with people with disablilities, in the community, homeless sector (where i am currently working while i build up a decent portfolio for further study!!), drug treatment, with the elderly.

Tell him to check out activelink.ie they have a good few jobs advertised at the moment. But important not to be too picky, its all experience. And like anyone leaving college the wages are not going to be briliant straight away.

Tell him best of luck!!! The hard work will pay off.

xochillixo

im about 2 start a long road of psychology and my fathr is an educational psychologist in the west... one thing is for certain u wont get any where in the field without extensive education.... would he consider doing a mastrs???

Mir174

I recently got a masters in clinical psychology and one in educational psychology. I disagree with everyones advice, because right now I am not finding any jobs in Ireland and have to move to england. Depending what
mark your boyfriend got, he should consider doing a phd. Voluntary and experience is a must he should be doing that job or no job. I did a lot during my degree, and helps u getting into masters etc. I hope this helps x

Myksyk

Masters in Clinical psychology??? Where?

Valmont

Myksyk wrote: »

Masters in Clinical psychology??? Where?

These sort of programs exist in Europe. I have two friends who graduated last year doing masters in clinical psychology in Leiden university.

Odysseus

sambuka41 wrote: »

Your boyfriend isnt a psychologist but he can get work in social care. There is loads of jobs that he can apply for, work with people with disablilities, in the community, homeless sector (where i am currently working while i build up a decent portfolio for further study!!), drug treatment, with the elderly.

Tell him to check out activelink.ie they have a good few jobs advertised at the moment. But important not to be too picky, its all experience. And like anyone leaving college the wages are not going to be briliant straight away.

Tell him best of luck!!! The hard work will pay off.

Just from on the drug treatment one, say for a poject worker he might stand a chance with some vol work, but that is becoming alot harder now as they are looking for quals in that area most of the time. Would be up too degree level now, but most places I know want some training in the addiction area. Now of course that's for a non psychotherapeutic position. Project workers are like support workers. However a simple addiction studies course might done him.

cathy01

from experiance,I can tell you, parents are always looking for psychologists that have experiance with autism.Maybe look inot something like that,cathy

sambuka41

Odysseus wrote: »

Just from on the drug treatment one, say for a poject worker he might stand a chance with some vol work, but that is becoming alot harder now as they are looking for quals in that area most of the time. Would be up too degree level now, but most places I know want some training in the addiction area. Now of course that's for a non psychotherapeutic position. Project workers are like support workers. However a simple addiction studies course might done him.

Yeah ive started to notice that alright. Im in my current job nearly 2 years and when i was applying for this i applied for project worker positions too, the requirements were the same. Now I've started looking again I've noticed that they are looking for training in addiction too. It is a good thing but I wonder sometimes whether making the requirement so restrictive is detrimental too. I've done training with my job over a day or two in addiction but working shift work makes it very hard to do a consistent course, but i personally think i would be up to the role of project worker,i work with people with addictions on ground level every day.

suppose thats true of all areas,wonder sometimes whether ireland puts too much emohasis on formal education and not enough on the practical stuff. Given my experience at the time i was lucky to get my current job, but the organisation is all about giving people chances.I learned on my feet and i'm not half bad at it. But if they were going based on my CV i prob shouldn't have got it.

Odysseus

sambuka41 wrote: »

Yeah ive started to notice that alright. Im in my current job nearly 2 years and when i was applying for this i applied for project worker positions too, the requirements were the same. Now I've started looking again I've noticed that they are looking for training in addiction too. It is a good thing but I wonder sometimes whether making the requirement so restrictive is detrimental too. I've done training with my job over a day or two in addiction but working shift work makes it very hard to do a consistent course, but i personally think i would be up to the role of project worker,i work with people with addictions on ground level every day.

suppose thats true of all areas,wonder sometimes whether ireland puts too much emohasis on formal education and not enough on the practical stuff. Given my experience at the time i was lucky to get my current job, but the organisation is all about giving people chances.I learned on my feet and i'm not half bad at it. But if they were going based on my CV i prob shouldn't have got it.

Sambuka, if you don't stating here out of interest where are you working? Or maybe PM?

On the quallification side on things, I hate the idea of preventing people from gaining experience. However, I have seen so much damage done to clients by ill informed unqualificated support/project workers that I really think its a good thing, I would suggest even raising the bar further.

Now I now some excellent people in those positions, but I gernerally left picking up the pieces, if the person is luckly.

sambuka41

Odysseus wrote: »

Sambuka, if you don't stating here out of interest where are you working? Or maybe PM?

On the quallification side on things, I hate the idea of preventing people from gaining experience. However, I have seen so much damage done to clients by ill informed unqualificated support/project workers that I really think its a good thing, I would suggest even raising the bar further.

Now I now some excellent people in those positions, but I gernerally left picking up the pieces, if the person is luckly.

I think its great that the place gave me a chance but yeah i have seen some people who are dangerous with their own agendas. But what scares me is that these people have qualifictaions and they are still hopeless, they receive extra training but aren't suited to the work. So i dont think qualifications alone can prevent damage, but they could exclude someone who has a genuine ability. Its a bit of a catch 22 but if we put more into the recruitment process ya might be able to weed out those who aren't suited. Maybe more training for the HR ppl thats specific to social care??

Odysseus

sambuka41 wrote: »

I think its great that the place gave me a chance but yeah i have seen some people who are dangerous with their own agendas. But what scares me is that these people have qualifictaions and they are still hopeless, they receive extra training but aren't suited to the work. So i dont think qualifications alone can prevent damage, but they could exclude someone who has a genuine ability. Its a bit of a catch 22 but if we put more into the recruitment process ya might be able to weed out those who aren't suited. Maybe more training for the HR ppl thats specific to social care??

Your right of course I know people with various qualifications that I would not refer to. However, in general there are always exceptions but they higher the qualification scale and person work side of things people have gone the better they are with working with people, always exceptions. I'm not saying this is the only way but personally some form of personal therapy at a significant level. My training analysis lasted five years, and the door is not closed either, I will be going back at some stage.

I understand the catch 22 situation and I worked as a support worker then project worker whilst studying for my degree, I was already qualified as a counsellor before I started my masters, but to be honest I think the IAAAC is too at accepting people, the have tightened it up significantly, but I think a bit more is needed.

However, then I get concerned about being seen as a academic snob, and I do hate the idea of making it too difficult for people to get started, but I may be going too far off topic here.

So in relation to the ops question the degree in psychology does not qualify him for anything in my understanding, it will allow him to study at post-grad level, and will open other doors, but even if he is not going to go down the long road of clinical psychology, if he wants to work in a particular area he is going to need either some form of further training or experience in a similar area, especially in this climate, maybe both.

Ilusa

Really interesting post Odysseus. Were did you get work as a support worker and did you need to have done any courses to start with the company or did they provide training?

Odysseus

I was luckly enough to get a position part-time in the Addiction Services whilst I was doing my degree. I had some basic training around addiction but mo too much. However, this was in 1997 there was plently of jobs available at the time.

From there I started to see client under supervision and introduce group work into my work role. I became a full member of IAAAC in 2000, things have change a lot since then. The supervision and client work is much more formulated nowadays.

pe-cze

Im starting Psychology and Sociology in UL (level 8 NFQ) this year. what does qualify me to do?

AvaKinder

In short it qualifies you to do any job that needs a degree as a baseline qualification i.e. admin.

You can't work as a Psychologist or Sociologist until you complete postgraduate training.

PurplePossum

He may get into a research job in the UK with a psychology/arts degree. check out jobs.ac.uk and look under the psychology section. Wages aren't at all bad! Alternately there are a good few funded PhD positions advertised in hospitals/research groups working with addiction or dementia studies. The alternative if he's not into the idea of working in research, is to get a post-grad qualification in what he's into, if its clinical psychology, or counselling, or if its educational psychology, you need both a teaching qualification and an educational psychology post grad masters in addition to the undergrad arts/psych degree he already has. ie another few years of study and experience are essential - you can't work in the field with just an arts degree! A B.A. is just a foundation, a starting point to get you into what area you want further training in.

PurplePossum

also parents with kids with developmental disorders (or maybe disabled/elderly) are usually happy to get people in with psych degrees as carers. Probably mostly menial work, but the money wouldn't be bad, and would be good experience to go on and get qualified in that area at a later date